Director: Eric RohmerEric Rohmer’s Summer is surely one of the best movies ever made about loneliness. Titled The Green Ray (after Jules Verne’s novel) outside of North America, the picture follows a Parisian secretary who has just gotten out of a relationship and struggles to find someone to spend time with during her vacation month of August. There is not much more to the plot than that – it is a picture of quiet observations and invigorating non-sequiturs, creating a rich portrait of a woman whose isolation is self-inflicted due to her particularity about whom it is that she spends her time with. Early on, she must explain to her well-meaning hosts that she will not eat any meat products, only before declining to accompany them on their boat due to her penchant for seasickness. It is a moment that is both character-building and surprisingly devastating, suggesting what is likely her pattern of being wrongfully interpreted as stand-offish and unpleasant. As much as Rohmer mourns her loneliness, however, he champions her independence – the mysticism associated with Vernes’ titular phenomenon attributes a hopeful note to the otherwise melancholic progression, suggesting that she has not completely resigned herself to her fate. Particular though she may be, she will never grow despondent.